


Safe (adjective) - Protected from or not exposed to danger or risk

by richiegayzier



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-05
Updated: 2016-11-05
Packaged: 2018-08-29 05:12:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8476645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/richiegayzier/pseuds/richiegayzier
Summary: Safe. For most of her life, she was safe. She always was. But safe was like an empty promise. You can say it's true, you can hope it's true, you can even believe it's true. But it never fully is. Not really.





	1. 011

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo... I made a thing. 
> 
> PS Tomorrow (6th November) is the anniversary of Will disappearing and (probably) El escaping the Bad Men. Just remember that.

Safe. For most of her life, she was safe. She always was. But safe was like an empty promise. You can say it's true, you can hope it's true, you can even believe it's true. But it never fully is. Not really.

 

In the lab, her home for the first 12 year of her existence, she was safe. Safe from illnesses caused by the outside world. Safe from the harsh elements of Mother Nature. Safe from the knocks and bangs and struggles of childhood. But that wasn't always a good thing. Never being ill meant her immune system was weak, and a normally unsevere illness could possibly turn fatal. Never having the chance to feel the elements meant that when she eventually did, they were scary and confusing and mean. Never getting the experience a life as a normal child meant she never got to play in leaf piles, or make snowmen in the snow, or eat ice cream under the hot sun. It meant not learning what some of the simplest of things were, like "friend" and "privacy" and "promise". It meant not getting to try the good things of childhood, like eggos and school, as well as becoming stronger because of the bad, like mouth breathers and hurt. It meant not having people who really care about her, people who really want to protect her, people she'd do anything for. And it meant not knowing what the fuzzy feeling she got in her tummy whenever she was around a certain one of them.

After she escaped the lab, she was safe. Benny showed her kindness. He gave her food. He gave her clean clothes. He tried to get her help. He kept her safe. But she wasn't really. The bad men still found her. They still wanted her. And this was the first time she learnt something new about safe; not only was she not safe, but she made other people safe too. Benny wasn't safe. The bad woman shot him. It was El's fault. It was all her fault. And again, she wasn't really safe.

When Mike and his friends found her, he made her safe. He built her a fort. He gave her warm clothes. He showed her lots of things, like "tv" and "la-Z-boy" and "yoda". And taught her things, like "friend" ("a friend is someone you'd do anything for.") and "promise" ("it means something you can't break. Ever"). He'd kept her a secret, and kept her safe from the bad men. Except she wasn't . They wanted to find the upside down, but it wasn't safe. For anyone. Lucas had said she was the monster, and she thought that maybe he was right. But then Mike and Lucas started fighting. She wanted them to stop. She only wanted them to stop. But she'd hurt Lucas. She'd made him not safe. Just like Benny. She didn't want that. So she left. She left, so they could be safe. From her.

That day she spent alone in the forest was the first time she felt everyone was really safe. The bad men wouldn't find her because she was hiding. She was safe. And the bad men wouldn't hurt anyone because she had left. She had kept them safe. But, of course, they weren't safe. Not really. Because the mouth breathers tried to hurt them. They tried to make Mike not safe. That was the day she learnt something else about safe. She could make everyone else safe. Not just by hiding, but by doing. There was something else she experienced, too. Trust. After safe came trust. Mike had kept her safe, and she trusted him. She had kept Mike safe, and he trusted her.

When she met Joyce and Nancy and Jonathan and Hopper, she felt a different type of safe. The safe were she knew she wasn't, but in that moment, with Joyce's arms wrapped around her, she felt it. She knew she wasn't, but in that moment, when Mike pressed his lips onto her and she got a fluttery feeling in her tummy, she felt it. She couldn't believe she could be that stupid. Because the bad men found them. They weren't safe. She tried to keep them safe. And for a moment, she had. But then Papa found her, and the bad men with guns grabbed her friends. They grabbed Mike. And then when the Demogorgon came, she felt another type of safe. Safe where she knew she wasn't, knew she'd never be, but everyone else was. She wasn't safe, but she could keep her friends safe. And maybe one day, she could be safe too. But for now, she wasn't. And if it meant everyone else would be, she was okay with that.


	2. Will

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He was usually kept pretty safe. And that was how everyone expected it to be. Will was the smallest. The weakest. Everyone else kept him safe from what they could. It was more terrifying to face what they couldn't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I wrote this in like half an hour, and it's quite short, but I had to do Will. I just HAD to.

  
He was usually kept pretty safe. His mom would always tell Lonnie to leave him alone. When she wasn't there (which was rare) and he was drunk (which was common), Jonathan would stand up to him. That'd result in him getting hit, but he always assured Will that it was worth keeping him safe. His friends kept him safe, too. Mike would always protect him from the bullies as best he could. And that was how everyone expected it to be. Will was the smallest. The weakest. Everyone else kept him safe from what they could. It was more terrifying to face what they couldn't.

When he was alone in the upside down, he hardly felt safe. Within the walls of his reflected home, he was terrified that at any moment the monster would find him. And he was right. Wrapped in the blankets in Castle Byers, there was always that lingering feeling that it'd rip apart the stick walls and find him. And he was right. But before that, there'd been a girl. At least, he thought she was a girl. He head was buzzed, and she was wearing a pink dress. It was hard to tell. But whoever she was, she promised him that he'd be safe. That his mom was coming to save him. That was the first time that week he felt safe. The girls cold, scared hands in his. She gave him hope. She made him feel safe.

After he was rescued, his mom and Jonathan promised him that he'd be safe. That everything was going to be okay. That they'd never let anything happen to him again. Honestly, he was sick of it. The way everyone felt the urge to protect him. And he couldn't do anything about it. But he wanted to. He really did. He didn't want everyone to put theirselves in danger for him. So when he coughed up the first of many slugs, he didn't tell anyone. When he was flashed to the upside down for a moment, he didn't tell anyone. When he fell asleep and found himself there, he didn't tell anyone. When he wandered round and found Eleven, the girl who'd given him hope and made him feel safe, lying weak in the blanket fort of the Wheeler's reflected basement, he didn't tell anyone. This was his secret. This was his way of keeping everyone safe. He couldn't bear the thought of anything bad happening to his family. Or Mike. There was a feeling there for him that terrified Will. A feeling that wasn't allowed. But still, it was there, so Will kept his mouth shut to keep Mike safe. For once, he was going to be the strong one.


End file.
